More than any other attribute, a poor workplace culture will brand an organisation as a "nightmare" employer, according to new research.
According to the inaugural Dream Employers survey - a joint venture between Insync Surveys and RedBalloon - "poor culture" outranked the nature of the work, the company/industry reputation and a company's negative social impact as the main factor tarnishing an employer's reputation.
Speaking at the launch of the results - which identified the organisations that Australians most want to work for - Talent2 CEO John Rawlinson noted that when an organisation has a bad reputation as an employer it's often deserved, but there are occasions when it's a "misrepresentation".
He cites the example of Pacific Brands, which had to restructure once it became apparent that it couldn't compete with China and Vietnam to manufacture socks and underwear. "They did everything right; retrained people; everyone found another job; but it was traumatic. And through that, very wrongly, they got misrepresented as not a good employer."
When that happens, he says, it's wise to leave the company brand off recruitment advertising and rely on recruitment specialists to "get candidates in and encourage them to at least have a look, [and] promote that the organisation is changing".
This isn't done by "getting out there and saying, 'hey we are a good employer', but by their actions, by what they've actually done around supporting their people, and that gets viral".
"You've all got to understand that with the global community of people online, it becomes really easy for employees to find out what it's like to work for a company directly. Bad employers will very quickly get a reputation as bad employers, and it's going to cost them."
The sort of media attention surrounding David Jones after its high-profile harassment claim would "undoubtedly" harm its employer brand, Rawlinson added.
"Part of the employment universe - the market of people they're trying to attract - will certainly cross them off the list... it certainly creates some damage."
And he says employers should be mindful that Gen Y candidates - the Google generation - "don't actually investigate much further than the headline".
"That works against employers. There will be people out there who say, 'I wouldn't work for DJs because they have a bad reputation around equal opportunity and the way they treat some people in their workforce'. You've got to rebuild that, not necessarily through PR and advertising, but by actions."
How to rebuild a brand
Peter George, a registered psychologist and also a director at Talent2, told the launch that rebuilding a company's culture and brand can be "very, very difficult, but it starts with people".
"The leaders of an organisation determine the culture in their behaviours, what they do, and what they tolerate. If you've got an organisation whose brand has been destroyed or damaged in some way, then it is a very, very systematic building process in the future, of getting leaders together, defining what the culture needs to look like in the future, and getting very serious about behaviours which they demonstrate on a daily basis, and the behaviours that they support and the behaviours that they don't tolerate with employees."
George adds: "You can destroy a brand very quickly, and it takes a long, long time to climb out of that hole.
"I heard someone say, 'I'll continue to shop [at David Jones] but I don't want my daughter working there'. That's a legitimate comment coming from the community.
"How long does it take? It depends how hard you work at it. This culture is something you can define. It doesn't come through good luck; it's about defining it properly, getting the leaders in your organisation together, defining it well, and making sure that everything you do, whether it be your employer brand, the way you greet people as they come in the door... starts to say, 'let's put the past behind us and live again', but it has to be a structured plan.
"How quickly you get there really depends on how much damage is done. I think generally, as a community we're fairly forgiving, and the DJs issue will disappear by this time next year, if they get serious about making it a worthwhile place and living the values that they espouse to."
Australia's "dream employers"
The survey identified the top attributes that made a "dream employer" as (in order): brand/company reputation; culture; work/life balance; and reward and recognition.
The top dream employers, nominated by survey respondents, were:
Google;
Virgin Group/Richard Branson;
Self-employment;
Apple;
Qantas;
The Walt Disney Company;
OMD;
Sydney Water;
Getaway; and
Coca Cola.
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